9 Jun 2013

Hi Folks, you may have noticed I haven't posted here for a while, well, Well-lived-life is on it's final legs. It will stay here as a memorial, but my writing will now be taking place at www.moneybeta.co.uk , I hope you've enjoyed our time here, please come and see my new site. It will be along the same lines, but I thought it was time to get a proper domain.Awesome, you've been great and I'm looking forward to seeing you at moneybeta.Have a great day.Dom

14 Mar 2013

I'm not one to let opportunities slide by without a thought to why and how they will increase my happiness. In fact it can be a painful process working out whether the next opportunity is a goer or not.Mostly the opportunities I come across are for new jobs. I am on the cusp of obtaining a new qualification and this has highlighted to me that maybe my current work isn't progressing as quickly as it should.Although I will be working in the same field (finance), I am thinking of moving to something with a little more difficulty rather than the daily grind which is currently my day job, although I am very aware that this may just be that the grass seems a lot greener as I stick my head above the parapet.So I was flicking through a few job boards as you do, looking at jobs the next step up from what I'm doing at the moment, when I came across one that seemed quite nice. The job description seemed not a great distance from what I'm currently doing, other than I would be running the team rather than working in it. It seems like a nice company, a charity organisation that arranges grants for disabled kids. I'm not specifically looking to work for a charity, but this seemed like a good cause.Then I saw the pay, twice what I'm on at the moment, this was a Neo like, woah moment for me. This sounds great. Then the bad news, it's 25 miles away. Bad times.Bad times indeed, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed I HATE COMMUTING. So because of this I ran the numbers, I took off the extra expense for commuting, along with a little money for my wasted time.It's still overall pretty positive, a net increase of over £500 a month.So, why I am telling you about all this? You don't care.Well, even though this would be a great increase in pay for me and would definitely speed up my route to early retirement, I HATE COMMUTING too much. I can't live with the fact that I would be driving 3 hours a day, rather than my current 30 mins. It just doesn't sit with me. So I didn't apply for it.Am I a fool? Yes, this is more money than what me and my partner earn combined. But it's unfortunately just not the right time.Anyway, what do you think? Should I dust the CV off and get it sent, or is this commute just ridiculousDom

12 Mar 2013

Finding the right motivation can be pretty difficult. I tend to look back at what I've learnt in the past, usually from cartoons!

The cartoon I've watched the most of is definitely the Simpsons. It has made me as outspoken as Bart, a dreamer like Lisa and lazy like Homer (I didn't say they were all good things!).

One episode that always stick in my mind is "and maggie makes three", as IMDB says it's about how Homer recounts Maggie's birth in an answer to why there are no photos of Maggie in the family album.

It turns out to be a heart warming story of how, before Maggie was born Homer had his life set. He was working in his dream job, the Bowlarama, earning just enough money to support his family. Then suddenly with the news of Maggies imminent arrival, he knows he must return to his old job at the power station, where he come crawling back to Mr Burns. His superiors then add insult to injury by adding a banner in front of his workplace. You can see it at the top of the page (image: deadhomersociety).

To soften the blow Homer cover's up certain words to create, what I think was the first motivational poster I ever saw (this was when I was in school!). He does this to make the his life a little more bearable, I've copied it below.

I think we can all see the message they're trying to convey, but to my then 10 year old brain I didn't really get it (well not fully). Homer is sacrificing his happiness for that of his child's, short term pain for long term gain. It's something we all come across at some point in our lives and the less selfish amongst us are probably involved in something right now that isn't to there liking but either helps their partner, friend or child.

It also resonates through to finance. If we want to be able to retire on our own terms, we need to start putting money away now. Yes, it's difficult, not many people out there are going to help you. But if you can see past all this short term rubbish, the hedonism and hangovers, you could start living a better, easier life in a lot shorter time than you think.

11 Mar 2013

I know its odd for someone who works with and blogs about money, but I completely agree.

Money is for spending. I just prefer to spend less so that I don't have to work as much. Maybe I'm just lazy.

This means whereas some people think they need millions to retire, I'm a little more streamlined. A bit more efficient perhaps.

My number is more like £400k - at 4% return this would give me 16k a year. Great! I should have paid my mortgage off by then, so I would comfortably be able to live on this amount.

So next question? Where the hell am I going to get 400k from? Well, I've heard compound interest is pretty cool! So according to mr Monevator I need to sock away £375 a month. Well I'm certainly not doing that at the moment.

So what can I do to help, I could increase the time frame? Nope! I want to retire early!! Not later!

I can increase the amount I put away, hmm a toughie this, is there anything else I can give up? Or maybe I need to earn some more. A possibility.

Another way could be to increase my return. Now I don't know much about investing, what I do know is that it's best to maximise tax free investments, e.g. pensions and ISAs. As for anything else, like fund / stock picking I pretty much suck at, because I've never done it, other than a couple of cash ISAs.

But at least I have a plan! It's a lot more that a lot of people.

Please don't be like these people, start saving now, live frugally and you can make it. You don't need as much as you think.

23 Feb 2013

My wife to be and son are napping at the moment so I thought I would
take the time to type something up that I've been thinking about over the last
two or three days.

It all started
with Maria's post over at theMoney Principle, a great article that made me look
differently at the Marxist theory. I then stumbled uponthe art of non-conformity, another great article about
how people don't understand, from flicking through Maria's "Money
blogs" links.

I still love the
fact that Maria is flustered by my milk and caviar comment from one of her old
posts. I still can't understand how she thinks £120k is "enough".
That's where the second article came in. Maybe she just doesn't understand the
route a lot of people are now taking.

People aren't just
looking to makesmall changes anymore, a lot of people really want a
wholesale upending of everything they do. Maybe because they're bored of their
work, or where they live or they are just sick of the day to day of broken
Britain.

A zero based budgeting
approach comes to mind, whereby we scrap the budgeting tools we've used before
and start with a blank page. What do we reallyNEEDin our lives.

Humans usually
need a few basics, water, food, shelter. Everything else are things we add for
comfort or at the extreme greed.

So maybe we
shouldn't start looking to reduce our mortgage rate, or look to save on our car
insurance, we should probably look at cheaper places to live other than houses
and maybe start thinking about getting rid of the car altogether.

These are the kinds of changes that can turn an ordinary person
into an early retiree or at least someone that is not forced to go to work to
fund a lifestyle beyond their own means.

That is the kind of person that for me has really got life sorted
in their own head, they’ve no need for superfluous items and their comforts
come from within.

This kind of lifestyle leans itself to one where families spend
more time with each other and learn how to do things for themselves rather than
outsourcing at higher costs. Where skills are nurtured from an early age and
progress with each passing project, without being put aside because we’re “late
for Corrie”!

I looked at my own budget took out mortgage, car, and media costs
and immediately my spending went from 80% of my wages down to 42%. This budget
still leaves room for luxuries. With a savings rate like that I could retire in 11 years, which seems like a long time, but I am earning
a sixth of that £120k and supporting 3 people!

Sounds pretty awesome to me, just imagine if I could double my
salary… it drops to 6 years! As Paul Whitehouse once said… BRILLIANT!!

Of course this is unfortunately a pipe dream until I can convince
the other half to move to a narrow boat and cycle everywhere ;)

19 Feb 2013

Look around you, it's not just a wacky TV show with Peter Serafinowicz, it's a way to reflect on what you do
and have.

I don't know about you but I like to do this at times of change in
my life and at specific intervals, usually my Birthday and New year (it helps
that my Birthday is half way through the year).

So I've just had quite a major change in my life, I've become a
Dad.

I have to say it's great so far*. I could never have thought I would
love anyone this much. It has also made me feel a lot closer to my partner
(maybe it's because it feels like it's me and her going through it all
together).

It also brings with it financial pressures and this requires some
refocusing.

Gaining some
refocusment.

I've reassessed some of our goals and think some new ones are in order
along with rejiggling my priorities.

As you may have noticed this blog has taken a bit of a back seat
since January. I'd like to focus more on it, but I simply haven't had the time.
I think my original goal of posting once fortnightly is acceptable. I have a
growing list of posts I want to write and want to get these started and done asap.

As for publicising this blog, it seems to be going ok. I had a bit of
trouble setting up a Facebook page. So that's definitely somewhere I could
improve. As you can see to the right, the tweeting seems to be going ok.

The only other thing I'm not doing is learning any html / programming. I
have been looking into courses in coding and hope to
give it a go soon.

My new hopes.

Firstly I hope to encourage the health, education and happiness of my
child and family. It cannot be understated how much this is paramount for me.

Next the pursuance of a higher income, whether that is through my day
job, blog income, or another side hustle. This is mostly to counter the
reduction in income from moving to a one income family, although with our spending
habits aligned and refocused I am happy that we can live on our current income.
It’s just that it doesn’t leave much room for fun, or investing in our future.
So an extra bit of cash would definitely help to push this forward.

I’m looking forward to and already enjoying the longer days we’re
having. Although damn you British weather if you’re not inconsistent! Snow last
Monday! Then looking outside today it’s incredibly sunny, yet step outside and
you immediately need some kind of fleecy wrapping to ensure all the warmth
isn’t stripped from your t-shirt wearing body.

And Finally…

There’s a lot things I’ve been doing right for a long time now, I don’t
have any out of control costs to kill my savings. This is a massive change from
where I was 6/7 years ago. It’s nice to look back and see a change for the
positive.

It’s also nice to have a lot to look forward to. So let’s go get em and
hit them where it hurts.

* Apart from the sleep deprivation, that is one thing I don’t think I
will ever get used to.

20 Jan 2013

I've noticed a bit of a theme on a
couple of blogs, house buying and it's associated
costs. I agree with them both, buying a house is one of the biggest
decisions you'll make in your life. That's why you should take your time over
it. Don't be put off if someone swoops in and buys the one you had your eyes on
from under you.

It's not the end of the world. Also, although it is relevant to have a sizeable deposit and cash available for fees.
This isn't the most important thing.

So what is? You have to make sure your
buying a HOME, put aside the money for a few minutes (it won't make you happy
anyway), this building you're buying is going to be the place you spend most of
your life in from now on. Yes a lot of it you'll be asleep for but nonetheless
it needs to be right.

Growth

So your buying a place with your new
husband/wife, maybe your going to want an extra room or two? What's that I hear
the distant patter of footsteps?

Got a love for cars / building
insane stuff make sure you have access to a garage. Or even better
some space to build one!

Training to become an Olympic swimmer? Maybe an indoor pool would be of use.

The point

Anyway
the point is don’t get too wrapped up in the price you pay for a home. Yes,
ideally you get it at market rate, but paying a few extra thousand isn't going
to break the bank, as long as you are happy to stay there for a long time.

This
is the kicker. If you are forced to sell the house due to having / wanting to
move in a short space of time you open yourself up to a whole host of bad
things.

Like
the market moving in the wrong direction, or having to lower the price to bring
a quick sale.

Moving
again will also add on the transaction costs. Mortgage fees, removal vans,
solicitors, it all adds up. It can really be a drain on your short term
finances and stop you getting where
you want to be.

Holding
on to the property for a bit longer can help you increase your net worth as
well. Paying down your mortgage will reduce your liability whilst the general
increase in the value of property over the long term will increase the value of
your asset.

At
the end of the day, your probably quite intelligent and you know this all
ready, so it’s really down to me to say, don’t take the first quote given for
anything, always shop around and remortgage to a lower rate whenever it is
viable to do so.

These
methods will help you to reduce your mortgage expense as quickly as possible.
Then when your mortgage free, the fun begins!